Sarandon was born and raised in Beckley, West Virginia, the son of Greek immigrant restaurateurs Mary and Christopher Sarandon.
In his teens, he played drums and sang back-up with a local band called The Teen Tones which later went on to tour with such musical legends as Bobby Darin and Gene Vincent. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Beckley. He earned his master's degree in theater from The Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, D.C., where he met his first wife, actress Susan Sarandon; they divorced in 1979. Sarandon then married and divorced model Lisa Ann Cooper during the 1980s; they have three children, Stephanie, Alexis, and Michael Sarandon. He went on to marry actress and singer Joanna Gleason in 1994.